


Look Into The Past

by Samunderthelights



Series: Zalex Week 2020 [3]
Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Don't copy to another site, M/M, Mutual Pining, Soulmates, Zalex, Zalexweek2020, zalexweek2k20
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:55:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25165813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samunderthelights/pseuds/Samunderthelights
Summary: When Alex and Zach are told by the carnival fortune teller that they are soulmates, they try to laugh it off. After all, Alex has already found his soulmate. But when they can't seem to forget about her words, they can't help but wonder if maybe there is some truth to it after all.---Zalex Week 2K20 : Day 3 - Soulmates
Relationships: Charlie St. George/Alex Standall, Zach Dempsey & Alex Standall, Zach Dempsey/Alex Standall, Zalex - Relationship
Series: Zalex Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820161
Comments: 8
Kudos: 47
Collections: Zalex Week 2k20





	Look Into The Past

“Looking for Charlie?” Zach asks, as he pops up behind Alex, a large bag of candy in his hand. He offers it to Alex, who hesitantly takes out a jelly spider, before looking around him again. “I saw him getting on one of the rides with Jess.”

“How do you eat that shit?” Alex laughs, when Zach stuffs a handful of candy into his mouth. “Seriously.”

“It’s good!” Zach shrugs. “Anyway, seeing as your boyfriend ditched you for… your ex?”

“Thanks for reminding me.” Alex rolls his eyes, still getting used to the fact that Charlie and Jessica are getting along so well.

“How about we go check that out?” Zach suggests, nudging his head into the direction of a small, purple carnival tent. It suits the Halloween theme perfectly, but there is something a little off about it, and when Alex looks at it, he can’t help but shiver.

“What is it anyway?”

“The one back there was a fortune teller.”

“Please tell me you didn’t actually pay to get your fortune told.”

“What? I was curious.” Zach shrugs. “I’m pretty sure she was just making it up though.”

“You think?” Alex scoffs. “It’s all bullshit, Zach. They just tell you whatever they think you want to hear.”

Zach shrugs, already chewing down on another handful of candy, and even though Alex is pretty sure that he will just be disappointed, he still finds himself curious as to what they will find in the purple tent. So they go over there, and they check out the sign next to the entrance.

“Come on, don’t you want to find out who you were?” Zach laughs, and his excitement is so contagious, that Alex just finds himself laughing and stepping into the tent with him. Even if he knows for sure that he is not about to find out who he was in a ‘past life’. But for Zach’s sake he’ll go along with it. Besides, who knows? It might make for a good laugh, right?

“Ah, hello, boys! Please, sit down,” the raven-haired woman says, even her outfit very on-point with the Halloween theme. Perhaps a little too on-point, because for a moment Alex expects her to put on a pointy hat before she begins her little act. He keeps quiet though, and he flashes a polite smile as they sit down at her table.

“Hi, I’m Zach, this is Alex.”

“Nice to meet the both of you. My name is Alecia,” the woman introduces herself, before pouring some kind of fluid into a bowl that is set on the table. “Before we begin, may I ask…”

Alex can feel himself rolling his eyes, because of course this is the point where she asks them a bunch of questions, and from their answers she will deduct what to tell them. It’s part of the act, and he has heard enough about these kinds of things to know how it works.

“Do you both know why you are here?”

“To find out who we were,” Zach says, and Alex can’t help but notice that the laughing, joyful mood has gone. That he almost seems a little nervous. “In another life, I mean.”

“Not exactly,” Alecia admits. “I cannot see who you were. I can’t give you a name, or tell you what your life looked like exactly,” she explains, Alex trying his very best not to roll his eyes again. “What I can see, or rather, what I can feel, is where your soul has been.”

“Our soul?” Alex asks, not even trying to hide his skepticism. “You can feel our _soul_.”

“I know how it sounds, trust me,” Alecia laughs. “I didn’t believe it myself when I first discovered my… ability.”

“Yet somehow you managed to believe in it enough to end up here… charging people money for your _ability_.”

“Alex!”

“That’s okay.” Alecia smiles. “How about I don’t charge you anything? This one is on me?”

“Why?”

Alecia shrugs, something in her eyes that makes Alex feel like he should get up and leave right now. Forget about the whole thing, because it’s ridiculous anyway. Right?

“Give me your hands,” Alecia orders, and both young men do as they are told and give her a hand.

Her hands feel cold, and both Alex and Zach almost pull back as soon as the freezing cold hits them. Yet something about the thing fascinates them, and they don’t back away as she lowers their hands into the bowl of clear fluid, which, as Alex assumes, is probably nothing more than water.

“Do you feel anything?” Zach asks, his voice a little shaky, and when his and Alex's eyes meet, he flashes a nervous smile.

“Not yet,” Alecia says, as she lifts their hands out of the water. She studies them, a smile slowly but surely forming on her lips. “I see.”

“What?”

“You carry a lot of pain with you, don’t you?” she asks, before looking up at Zach.

Alex almost tells him that this is just part of the act, they ask something general, try to get under your skin. But Zach nods, as Alecia traces a finger over the inside of his hand.

“I can feel a terrible pain,” she goes on, “A loss. Something….”

“Something?” Zach asks, when she stops mid-sentence. “I lost my dad? A couple of my friends died…”

“No, not in this life. It was a long time ago,” Alecia continues, and whatever trace of excitement that had been left, it’s now gone. All Alex wants to do is drag Zach out of here, because being told that his soul is in pain is the last thing he needs to be told. Even if it’s all a load of…

“Your soul lost a part of itself,” Alecia explains, before turning to face Alex. “So did yours, for that matter.”

“Right.”

“You know why you found each other again in this life, don’t you?”

Again?

“I’ll bite. Why?” Alex asks, “Our souls have a mission to save the world?”

“Because you are bound together,” Alecia explains, ignoring the young man’s sarcasm. “Your souls will continue finding each other, all throughout…”

“Great.” Alex nods. “Thank you for your time.”

“You mean like soulmates?” Zach asks, and Alex is about to tell him off for buying into Alecia’s act. But he doesn’t get the chance to, before she continues.

“Not _like_ soulmates. Some souls are bound together, and they _need_ to find each other. If they spend a lifetime apart, it causes such a pain that will carry over into the next life. This pain you are feeling, that is your soul telling you…”

“Our friend killed herself,” Alex interrupts. “We had to watch one of our friends die. _That_ causes our pain, not some… soulmate bullshit. Everyone is in pain, and you are only making it worse, by putting on some fucking show, and taking advantage of it.”

“I’m sorry,” Zach mumbles, as Alex gets up and storms off. He quickly follows him, and when he catches up, he gently puts a hand on his arm. “Look, she was just…”

“Soulmates? Are you fucking kidding me?” Alex spits out, ready to go on fuming, but when he sees the hurt look on Zach’s face, he sighs. “Sorry, I didn’t mean...”

“It’s fine. Charlie is your soulmate, so… Look, it was stupid. Let’s forget about it, okay?”

They go over to Charlie and Jessica, who are happily chatting away, but when they notice the looks on Alex and Zach’s faces, they quickly stop talking.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Did you go in there?” Alex asks, pointing over to the tent.

“Yeah, it was a little weird,” Jessica laughs. “What did she tell you guys?”

“I’m pretty sure she thought we were together,” Zach chuckles uncomfortably. “She told us some stuff about how we had already met in another life.”

“Apparently we will keep meeting each other.” Alex rolls his eyes, but he can’t help but notice that Zach is avoiding using the word ‘soulmates’ as well. It feels like they are downplaying it, but somehow that only makes it feel worse. “It’s probably what she says to everyone who comes in together.”

“No,” Charlie laughs. “She told me that I’m a ‘new soul’. There was nothing to see.”

“Apparently I’m a warrior.” Jessica shrugs. “A lot of pain and tragedy. But that’s no surprise, is it?”

“So she didn’t tell you…?”

“That we met before? No.”

“That’s cool, right? You two were meant to be friends!” Charlie smiles, and although the two friends return his smile, Jessica can’t help but notice the tension between them.

\--

Charlie and Jessica are fast asleep in the living room of the Dempsey home, but Alex can’t forget about what Alecia had said, and even more so, Zach’s reaction to it. It keeps playing over and over in his mind, so he gets up and he goes outside for some fresh air. But when he hears the door, he knows that Zach has had the same idea.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“It got to you too, didn’t it?” Zach asks, as he sits down beside him on the front steps. “I know she was just making it up, but…”

“But what if she wasn’t?”

“Exactly,” Zach sighs.

They both look up at the sky, until Alex finally breaks the tense silence.

“What you said about Charlie… about him being my soulmate?”

“He is. I was just being stupid. She probably could have told me anything, and I would have believed her.”

“But we know it isn’t true,” Alex sighs. “I wanted it to be, I think. When I kissed you. But that’s not what this is, Zach. You made that pretty clear to me.”

“Yeah, I did,” Zach says, something about it that makes Alex think there is another meaning to it. But he doesn’t dare to ask. “And now you’re with Charlie.”

“Now I’m with Charlie.” Alex nods. “But he is not my soulmate. Is he?”

“Alex…”

“This isn’t fair, Zach,” Alex whispers, even though the others inside the house won’t hear them either way. “I wanted this, and you knew it.”

“I’m sorry…”

“You don’t get to do this,” Alex says, but when he is about to get up, Zach kisses him. He doesn’t get a chance to even think about it though, because lightning lights up the sky, the second their mouths collide, and it makes them both quickly back away from each other.

“What the hell was that?”

“A coincidence?” Alex tries, but after what Alecia had told them earlier, he isn’t sure what to believe anymore.

Zach turns to look back at the house, a small smile on his face. Alex can’t help but wonder what he is thinking, especially after they have just kissed, but he isn’t sure if he dares to ask. Because whether Alecia had made the whole thing up or not, whether there is such a thing as soulmates or not, Zach is his best friend, and he doesn’t want to lose him.

“Charlie is good for you.”

“He is.” Alex nods, still half-expecting a ‘but’. Perhaps even hoping for it. Zach doesn’t say another word though, instead he gets up, and he extends his hand to him. Alex takes it, and he follows Zach back into the house, where they lie back down with their friends.

“You’re cold,” Charlie whispers sleepily, before curling up behind Alex and wrapping his arms around him.

Alex looks up, a ping of guilt going through him when his eyes meet Zach’s, but when he sees the reassuring smile on his face, he knows that they are okay.

\--

“So… do you want to talk about it?” Jessica asks, as she and Zach watch Alex and Charlie drive off the next morning.

“About…?”

“What happened back at the carnival yesterday? What that woman told you?”

“It was nothing.”

“Really?” Jessica asks, as she raises an eyebrow. “I know you, Zach.”

“She said we were soulmates. Our souls are bound together apparently,” Zach sighs, as they sit down on the front step.

“Does he know?”

“Know what?”

“That you’re in love with him,” Jessica says, a shy smile forming on Zach’s lips. “Did you tell him?”

“He’s with Charlie.”

“You know he’s been in love with you for years, right? Don’t get me wrong, Charlie is great, but you and Alex… I’d say soulmates is a pretty good weird to describe it.”

“We had our chance, and I ruined it. He’s happy now, so I’m not going to mess that up for him,” Zach says, before getting up, trying his best to ignore the knowing look on Jessica’s face. “He’s happy, Jess.”

“I’m sure he is. But he loves you, Zach.”

“Perhaps we’ll get another chance.” Zach shrugs, as Jessica wraps her arms around him.

“What? In the next life? Because if you are seriously thinking about waiting that long…”

“I’m not. I’ll tell him.”

“You’re not going to tell him, are you?” Jessica sighs, as she lets go of him. “What is the worst that could happen?”

“He has a boyfriend, Jess. Maybe this is how we were meant to be, you know? Just friends.”

“You don’t seriously believe that, do you?”

“I have to.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr : https://samunderthelights.tumblr.com/


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